When one thinks of the word “endangered,” there are only a few words that follow: species, plants, or animals. Lorin Pritikin reminds Parker that one of the most important words that follow “endangered” is: language.

1500 endangered languages could disappear by the end of the century. About 43% of over 7000 languages are endangered. Just 23 languages are spoken by more than half of the world’s people.

Troubled by these numbers and curious about this epidemic, Pritikin applied for an enrichment grant to travel to Bretagne, or Brittany, located in the north-west region of France, where she was “allowed to do extraordinary research and learn about their culture.”

Pritikin took a summer course before traveling where Professeur Gael Le Corr taught. Le Corr “developed an interest in Breton for its richness.” Le Corr continued, “I then had children and wanted them to learn the language of which they were from. I really wanted them to know their roots and where they came from. My children are fluent in Breton now. I hope they create a special bond with their history when they’re older. I’m also currently learning Breton, though it’s quite difficult, it’s very interesting.”

Another one of Pritikin’s professors, Eric Le Lan, runs a community center where young people can learn more about culture. “I was around 40 when I started learning Breton,” Le Lan said, “and now my children are fluent and even teach me.”

Some activities Pritikin experienced while in Bretagne with her husband were “hanging out in cafes,” “traveling to other cities,” “taking boats,” and “seeing beautiful sunsets across the water.”

Pritikin describes the experience as “eye opening and life changing.” Pritikin said she believes that “when you wipe out a language, you basically wipe out a culture.”

Taking all Pritikin’s collected knowledge and bringing it back into the Parker community, Pritikin is “donating Parker’s first Breton book to Parker’s library.” Pritikin wants “this to be part of my legacy in supporting language.”

In a final reflection on her time at Parker and her Enrichment Grant, Pritikin said to the student body, “You all will be the legacy that I leave. The last thank you is to you students. To those of you in the audience, the joy that you bring to this place in curriculares and extracurriculares is amazing. We teachers come here each day and feel the joy of what it means to have a life year because of what you give us. ”

As a call to action Pritikin said, “If you want to be a language activist, you can donate to ‘Living Tongues: Institute For Endangered Languages.’

More than anything, Pritikin hopes that by sharing her knowledge and what she learned by traveling, that students will “learn to become language activists.”